I’ve traveled internationally many times but when this opportunity to spend July 4th, in Alaska appeared, I said, “Of course.”

I had no idea what Alaska held for me but I must tell you that I truly fell in love with our 49th State.

So what I’m going to do in this blog post is let you fall in love with Alaska as well.

I’ll tell you a bit about our route which was basically the Kenai Pennisula and then I’ll let the images do the talking for me…

So the flight to Anchorage was very long. We flew from JFK to Salt Lake City, changed planes and then arrived in Anchorage. It must have been about 1 in the morning but I was too exhausted to think about anything but sleep.

So the next morning we started out early and took the scenic drive to the town of Homer.  We made several stops along the way to admire the wilderness, the beautiful scenery and the wildlife.

Here are some images of that scenery.

 

Now Homer is a funky enclave at the southern tip of the Kenai Penisula.

The town began as a fishing and mining outpost but more recently creative types have staked their claim their as well.  All I can say about Homer is that I fell in love with it…  For me, it was like a hippy outpost with all kinds of folks just doing their thing.  I just loved the easy, breezy nature of the whole place.  Even every dog I saw was well behaved…Amazing…But not really when the people were so nice.

Here are some images of Homer.  The Water Taxi Image is how you get from Island to Island in the Kenai Peninsula.  The set of images after this are of Seldovia.  An island that I took a Water Taxi to-during my stay in Homer.

But first, let’s visit the town of Homer…

So as I mentioned previously, on our Free day in Homer, I took the Water Taxi with a friend to Seldovia.  Seldovia is about an hour by water taxi from Homer and it’s a small town with only 200 people.  There are a lot of great views and a lot! of small town charm.  Here are some photos.

 

And here are some images from Homer’s 4th of July parade…

What a fun small town parade. So fun to be there!!

And now we’re off to Seward, Alaska, also part of The Kenai Peninsula.

 

In Seward we took a Kenia Fjords National Wildlife Cruise, visited The Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center and for me best of all I signed up to visit Seavey’s Ididaride. The Ididaride is a 1,000 mile dog sled race that’s held every year and costs, yes costs $45,000 dollars to enter. It’s a brutal experience which includes 14 to 16 Huskies,you, the sled and all the expertise and dog care you can imagine and Then Some!!!!!

Here are some photos from that visit including taking a trail ride. So fun!!

All in all it was an awesome experience and ride.

Then after our stay in Seward, we drove back to Anchorage

and then flew out to St. Paul Minnesota and then changed planes for JFK.

I love Alaska, the scenery is breathtaking, the wildlife is just wonderful and the people are sooooo nice!  So if you get a chance to visit don’t pass it up—

And so it’s good-bye to Alaska until hopefully my next visit!